Kicking the iPhone when it's up.

Hey! Remember when eWeek used to be MacWeek and was a great resource for Mac and Apple-related news?!

Ahh, good times, huh?

Yeah, well, that was a long time ago, grandpa.

As evidence, here's two recent iPhone-related pieces from the erstwhile Apple rag.

FSF: The iPhone Will Betray You

Wow! The Macalope will have to keep an eye on his iPhone and make sure it isn't allowed near any knives or blunt instruments.

Well, actually, all the piece does is uncritically quote open-source proponents who speculate that Apple may have violated the GPL by restricting access to the iPhone software.

"But, even if the iPhone never violates the GPL, we fear that users may be 'hyped' into buying yet another device that they have no control over?one laden with treacherous computing schemes that add malicious features, like digital rights management," he said.

You mean the DRM that Apple is actively trying to jettison?

That DRM?

The brown and furry one knows DRM iz teh ev1l, but open-source proponents don't do themselves any favors when they engage in such histrionics.

Although, they do get funnier every time you hear them, don't they?

Let's look at the second piece.

iPhone Coughs Up First Bugs

Much of the article is based on David Maynor's Robert Graham's blog post that the Macalope linked to below, but only gets to the "we think the iPhone is inherently more secure than competing smartphones" quote in the 13th graf (three from the end). The part that isn't based on Graham's post focuses on a security flaw in Cingular/AT&T's system that allows someone to spoof your caller ID and gain access to your voice mail.

Other than Errata Security getting the iPhone to lock up under fuzzing, all of these flaws were known before Friday.

Lame.

Oh, and remember, eWeek is owned by CNET, so when the horned one criticizes their Apple coverage he does so only because he's totally pwned by the man.

Wait, what?

[The Macalope's CNET sempai (look it up) Tom Krazit informs the pointy one in comments that "the man" does not, in fact, own ZDNet, just ZDNet.com. Like that makes any sense. Sheesh.

He of the rutting and bucking will have to find another way to enhance his street cred.]

[Tom Krazit]

We don't own eWeek

Sorry, iAntlers. eWeek is Ziff-Davis' love child. We own ZDnet.com, but not ZD itself.

[Macalope]

What kind of sense does THAT make?!

And darn it all, how's a mythical beast supposed to develop some street cred?!

[spyroland]

Hey I need a subject here

Wow the FSF are really good at FUD... Now please stop buying appliances crippled with malicious features that will bite your dog.
Pretty please.

[cnetter001]

ZD vs. ZD and the man; writing about the iPhone

@Tom. Well that's not confusing.

@the Lope. I think everyone needs to cover the iPhone because everyone
wants to read about it (sounds dumb right?). But in this case it is weird. Even
my wife who does not give a deer's antlers about this kind of thing keeps
coming home and telling me what Time or Newsweek has to say about
iPhone. My parents called me and asked if I've heard about "the new Phone".
People want to know about it.

Anyway, so the writers who are asked to write about it and don't want to
decide to try to hate on it. Now I'm all for constuctive criticism as I've
resisted buying one...yet...so...

How does the antlered one find his?

[Macalope]

iPhone reaction

He loves his iPhone. Like everyone, he has one or two nits to pick, but anytime you're using a new device and giggling like a school girl, that's generally a good sign.

Or you're a school girl. That's the other possibility.

[illegal.alias]

Not just eWeek

There is no shortage of morons. TheStreet.com has this headline, "iPhone
Misses Sales Mark: Apple's iPhone missed a 1 million unit sales target and
rivals are rejoicing." The author then goes on to quote IAG Research's Roger
Entner (whoever that is), "For the other carriers, it's not a game changer. It's
business as usual again."

First they make up a sales target, then claim because of this failure to meet
this totally made up figure, the competition will go back to business as usual.
These guys are putting parody writers out of business.

[BobBobBobBobBobBobBob]

the street is wacky and crooked

Had the iPhone sold 1 million they would say they missed it too. Funny that
when I read some of the predictions of iPhone selling 200k units, I thought that
number was too high and they were just setting up AAPL for failure.

I'm sure the real reason is they're trying to keep the stock from running up,
maybe several of them or their clients shorted the stock.

[tomhuxley]

eWeek used to be PCWeek

Hey Macalope,

Actually, eWeek used to be PCWeek, MacWeek became eMediaWeekly. And now
it's a http redirect to Macworld.com.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!